sassyangies - the scale tricked you briefly! It happens alot; it's not just sodium, your weight fluctuates with hormones, due to exercise, and for so many other reasons. If you keep working hard you will see it happen - as you did! Congrats on making your mini-goal, that is a big one. Spectacularly done, madame. I hope you made it through the weekend/your work week with flying colors!

PS - I always count the lowest weight, myself. I figure, that is not a mirage, and I want to count it so I will!

Jane - I think news like that can be tough; it's not selfish, there's nothing you can do even though you want to help them! Glad your friend's lumpectomy was benign, though. That's always a relief.

dgramie - did you get your spare room cleaned out? I have a catchall room like that, too! Which always accumulates Stuff with a capital S. I finished cleaning up Christmas decorations this weekend, then cleaned the house. Went to my folks' to water mom's plants, ran various errands, played some video games. I made a 16-bean soup for lunch this week, and an eggplant/zucchini/mushroom cheese pie with a zucchini crust to have for dinner. I was calculating the total calories in my head and at first overcalculated by 1000, and was thinking I would need to get 6 or 8 servings out of it to work. Then I realized the error and was like: whoa! This actually is pretty healthy!

Cuter - so glad that your surgery went well! Congrats on the pre-op weight loss. Keep up the brilliant (and tough!) work and let us known how things go!

Rosebud - so sorry that you had the flu complicating your recovery. That must have been difficult! We are miss you and are thinking of you, but you have to concentrate on getting better. Keep getting better! I look forward to hearing more from you as you do.

I woke up a WEE bit late this morning, but still got my exercise in. I'll repeat in the evening. I have a few un-done chores from the weekend that I didn't finish, but am not going to chastise myself. Mostly I had a good weekend. This week will be a quiet week, which will be nice. Hope all y'all have a great one!

Thanks everyone for all the support. I really apreciate. I'm so excited about it and got another exciting surprise this morning.. The scale dipped one pound lighter.. Yay!!!

Anyway today is busy day for me, but I might come back in a little bit after my little man goes to school and chat some more.. Hope everyone has a great Monday!!

Plus I'm highlighting my hair.. Wish me luck!!

That pie sounds yummy mnemosyne!

I got busted being lazy! There's this man that works with me that I hired (payment in the form of pie) to paint our living room and kitchen. It's a really tiny condo, but I'd rather have it done well, and he painted professionally for a time. He's a great guy, but a little unreliable. He did the living room in October, and it's beautiful, but it took me four months and about six tries to schedule the rest of the work. Well he mentioned coming today, but he likes to imbibe on his weekends, so I didn't put much faith in him showing (and thus didn't do my dishes). Low and behold, there he is this morning all gung ho to paint my kitchen!

Mother nature is visiting me, so the scale is up. I don't mind that so much, but the return of the symptoms is less than thrilling. I all but lost my period at my heaviest, and when I did get it there was no pms symptoms. Now though it's coming a lot more often and the pms and cramping is awful.

sassyangies - hah. Celebrate! Congrats on even more good news. What are you using to highlight your hair? I just started coloring mine a few months ago, and thus far I've just used demi-permanent colors. I like it, even if I have to do it every month. I was going to give myself a "professional" coloring from a real stylist when I reached 299, then kept putting it off and finally did it myself. It's just hard to find a stylist and I'm lazy about the upkeep! What colors are you using? I wanna hear how it turns out.

Jane - It is a delicious recipe, and pretty easy. It's from an old book by Jane Brody - the Good Food Book. Subtitled 'Living the High Carbohydrate Way' which makes me laugh - but it's great for me as she has loads of vegetarian recipes and was into whole grains a looong time ago. But! this recipe is actually not at all high-carb.

I found a copy on the web: Eggplant Cheese Pie with Zucchini Crust. I changed it up by making the filling from a combination of sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, and eggplant since I had all those sitting around and needed to use them. WE will see how it is tonight!

Oh, and heh. Mine returned, too. I never had many PMS symptoms in the past, but I found that I have had more cramps, lately. Unpleasant as it is, it's also nice to know that your body's working again the way it should.

What color are you painting the kitchen?

Not alot going on here..I didnt exercise yesterday. I was wiped out by the end of the day. I will plan better today and have some meat thawed to fix this evening. We ended up eating frozen dinners last night...at least I know how many calories were in it.
I have to color my hair also and find myself doing it about once a month. I am planning to treat myself to a pro color and highlights before my daughters wedding in may.

We painted the kitchen sort of a 1950's pale green for lack of a better descriptor. It actually works really well with the paler green in the living room. I'm so excited to finally change the colors in that place. It was so blah before. I'm looking forward to trying that recipe thanks for finding it!

I'm glad my body is functioning too, but the water weight is frustrating me. I was in the middle of a woosh when this hit!

Jane sounds like and awesome color. I love that color against white.. My favorite. I love to paint too.. Haven't done it in awhile definetely need too.. Don't worry about the weight it will come off. I know it's frustrating but you have done so great you can pull through this.

Mnem, my go to color and my favorite brand of color because I have awful grays and allot of them that are hard to color over is Loreal Paris Superior Preference. It has the best grey coverage I either go Light brown or Medium brown. They go on dark so the medium brown is really dark. Yesterday I streaked it using the cap with bleach and I don't like it. I think I pulled too much hair out of the wholes. So tomorrow I'm going to put a light brown on top of that to calm it down. I usually don't highlight my hair, but I was desperate for something different. When I put the brown over it it should look fine. It should just look like brown, but different shades of brown.

Yesterday was hard for me not sure why. I was hungry all day long (not really) and I wanted to eat everything in site. I was on target with my calories the whole day until I made some cookies for hubby and ate one then 3 more..haha.. but they were so good. I don't think it was enough to throw me off, but I have to choose not to do that next time.

Today I'm going to go talk to a tattoo artist about a tattoo that I am getting. I am hoping he will not quote me too high because I really want to get it this week, but my budget is no more than $100. I'm going to get something to remind myself that this is a lifelong journey and that I need to stick with it. I'm excited!! I've never gotten a tattoo that anyone can see before so a little nervous too.. Wish me luck!!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Tuesday. I'll probably be back tonight. My son's going to grandmas for the night.

dgramie - that sounds like a lovely treat, you have so much to look forward to in the next few months! Hope yesterday and today are easier days.

Jane - that sounds fun. I know what you mean about blah. I didn't paint my living and dining room and so for years they were just white, but I finally did it this fall. The only rooms I have left to do are the bathroom and my spare bedroom, which both have other issues I'd need to address so doubtful that I will do it soon. I have green all over the house, too. Yellow-green in the bedroom, some other green in the living room, an aqua blue / green? in the dining room,and various shades of green in the kitchen. My house is so old that there were four layers of wallpaper on the soffits above the cabinets. And some damage to the drywall from removing the paper and an old leak, so I did this messy striped thing on the soffits. Not perfectly done, but it is fun to transform your space.

Will you need to get new curtains, et cetera? Or does the new color match your old things?

sassyangies - I'm impressed with how well you're handling disliking the highlights. I would panic, though I probably wouldn't attempt it! I use, hmm. Either a bronze-brown or a mahogany brown color from Natural Instincts or one of the other demi-permanent brands. I like the way it comes out, but I have probably 10-15% gray, no more.

What sort of tattoo are you going to get? I have never come up with an idea that I would like to have forever, although sometimes I thing that eventually I would like to have skin removed from my arms and the scar ornamented with a tattoo. Years and years ago, I remember seeing a photograph of a woman who had had a mastectomy from breast cancer and instead of having a breast implant, she went and got this elaborate tattoo of a tree around the scar from her surgery. It was this really lovely photo and I loved the idea of ornamenting a scar and celebrating survivorship like that. But I doubt that even if I end up at goal weight I would be able to afford such surgery.

Still, good luck on the tattoo!

It is gray, rainy and cold here. I was debating going to the opera tonight because I thought it was Les Troyens, which I've not seen. It is Aida, which I HAVE seen. (I've even seen Roberto Alagna sing the tenor part, and seen this production in the theater, and seen it live at least twice.) Much as I love it, I am skipping it. Soo much time in the middle of the evening. I have other things to do.

Have a great day y'all!

mnem, that is such a great idea about covering a scar like that with a beautiful tattoo. hmm.. I would totally do that. Well, I got the tattoo I love it so much. It's a trinity sign with 3 birds. One bird is sitting on it and two birds flying above it. I love it and the guy was so so nice.

After that my hubby took me out to eat. I allowed it since I was starving and still had 1200 calories to eat. We went to a mexican place and I had a chicken enchilida and black beans. I didn't do bad.

I put the light brown on top on the highlights and it looks so much better. You can't see all the blonde, but just a little of the blonde. I'm happy with that. Today I gotta go pick up my little man from my mom's house and go buy my mom a scale so she can weigh herself in for our challenge. So far I'm in the lead.. yay...
I hope everyone has a great Wednesday!!

I might be able to talk the man into some new curtains for the bedrooms, and I did buy some really pretty cranberry ones with white sheers for the liviing room, but most everything else matches. When I moved in with him he had blackout curtains on the only window in the front of the unit, and everything was painted the muddy beige they sold the units in. This green lightens it up, and I have some nice antique pieces that just make it feel like a nice country home. We painted the fireplace wall a deep red though because he was starting to grouch that I was "grandmaing" up his condo.

My fridge quit this morning. I've only had it three months and the company I bought it from is giving me the run around, so there's my headache for the day.

We had sleet, so no kids in my care yesterday. Hubby and I went and ate out. Going to have to get back at it today hardcore.

I stayed up a little too late last night talking to a friend and am feeling a bit tired and lazy today. Even so, I don't feel *tired*, which is great. Exercising first thing in the morning really helps, and I've come home every night this week to do my toning video. I kind of like it, actually.

I am looking forward to the weekend; it will be quiet and domestic. I want to try a new recipe and am going through different ideas. I found a recipe for whole wheat vegetable fritters that I might try, and another for a vegetable casserole topped with tofu. But I also have some pasta in hte pantry that I need to use up (it is relatively fresh so will expire soon). Ooor, I saw a post about rutabaga fries elsewhere on the site, which I might try. Decisions, decisions!

sassyangies - glad you got your tattoo, it sounds like a lovely design. I'm glad that you had such a great experience! I watched this TV show about tattooing on some cable channel this fall (it was a contest) sometimes, and loved some of the work they did. Good for your for getting something that you wanted done AND fixing up your hair. Glad that worked out!

I like Mexican food and it sounds like you made good choices!

Jane - ugh! That is a total pain w/r/t the fridge. Heh, my fridge is at least 30 years old I think (it is ... almond color. When was the last time they made almond color appliances?) and just came with the kitchen. Works fine. It is weird about new appliances though, two of my aunts redid their kitchens in the past few years and both had trouble regularly with their new ovens, which would annoy me. I did replace my oven a few years ago after the old one broke down and haven't had trouble with it. Hopefully they will get you taken care of, soon!

And hah @ you grandmaing up the place. I am sure my house is entirely grandma'd. Actually it is; I have Georgia O'Keefe, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and John William Waterhouse prints on the wall.

dgramie - you are having SO MUCH WINTER. But you can definitely get back to it; you've made so much progress and have so much to look forward to! Be strong today!

Congrats on the tattoo Sassy!

Dgramie It sounds like your winter is as bad as ours is! We've been getting freezing rain on top of mounds of snow so the whole town is a skating rink right now. So many deadly accidents because of it too. Crazy.

Mnemosyne Weirdest thing - I went home at lunch and the darn thing is working again! Although there seems to be a weird whirring noise in the freezer. I'm going to empty it and unplug it this weekend and make sure there's no dust in the back or an ice plug up somewhere. I'm not that lousy a housekeeper though, so there shouldn't be.

It really is amazing how nothing lasts any more. The fridge and stove we just replaced were only four years old. They were cheap models, but the stove temperature was so unreliable! We would have kept using it, but when we bought our tv, there was a large double oven unit on sale for 50% off. We couldn't pass it up. The seals on the old fridge were gone in the first year.

Sorry about your fridge. I hate buying appliances. It stinks. Hopefully it's working better when you get home.

Well, today has been a slow day and I'm happy for that. I feel so lazy. Last night was our meeting at starbucks with my scrapbook club. It's so much fun to sit and talk to a bunch of girlfriends for hours. I don't go until 7 and got home around 11. We all brought our smashbooks and looked eachother's over. I also went to Michaels and bout a new scrapbook and a new art design book that I'm going to try and do. I'm not much of an artist, but why not try..
Well, hope everyone has a great Thursday.

THANKS MEM -- I am feeling better each day; the flu is finally starting to go away (just a few sniffles, etc but it is much much better now). I tire a bit by late afternoon, so take a rest; and go to bed earlier to read as I am wiped out by about 8 pm. It will take time but Im on the mend ...

Today we are having chicken breasts with roasted veggies (onions, carrots, broccoli, and tators with herbs & spices) -- nice and healthy and yummy. I am showing my BIL easier ways to prepare dinners for them later on. This is my famous one-pot roasted dinner meal -- so easy and simple (esp for a new learner like him). Ive mentioned this here before.

Weve had lovely almost all week; a bit more ***** and lower temps, but still pretty nice really. Hope you all have a lovely OP week.